Ascending Mike Crapo seeks compromise on Senate Banking panel

When Mike Crapo assumes the top Republican spot on the Senate Banking Committee next year, he’ll face a tall order: cutting deals with Democrats over housing and financial regulation that have eluded the panel in recent years.

But Crapo, a third-term senator from Idaho, said he believes the panel is on the verge of a more cooperative era and that there is more to agree on than meets the eye.

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“We will try to build common consensus-based solutions between the members of the committee,” he told POLITICO.

Crapo said he won’t shy away from working with Democrats on the politically thorny issue of how to overhaul mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were taken over by the government in 2008 at great expense to taxpayers.

The goal, he said, should be reducing the federal government’s role in the mortgage market.

“I believe that housing reform should be a very significant and prominent aspect of this committee’s focus,” Crapo said. “I think we should be able to at least identify what our response to the current threat is and how we would move forward in the future.”

Crapo has kept a low profile in Washington during his career, and he’s not known as a bombastic partisan. At times, he has shown a willingness to make deals with Democrats.

For instance, as a member of the Simpson-Bowles commission, he joined Senate Democrats on the panel in endorsing its deficit-reduction proposals, which included tax hikes.

But Crapo is also not a fence-sitting moderate, and Idaho is a solidly Republican state, meaning there will be little pressure on him from back home to forge compromises.

To make deals happen on the panel, Crapo is banking on a partnership with committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) — a fellow rural-state legislator with a similarly soft-spoken style and history of bipartisan cooperation.

“Sen. Johnson and I have a good friendship and a great working relationship,” Crapo said, adding that he plans to meet with the Democrat to discuss the committee’s coming work.

“I want to visit with members of the committee and visit with Sen. Johnson to see what they have in mind,” he said. “We have a lot of work to put in place.”

Crapo noted that he had not yet been named the committee’s ranking member, but consensus on the Hill is that it’s all but official.

Readers' Comments (2)

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is too powerful according to Crapo.

I do not think that the majority of America agrees with him. He is speaking from the viewpoint of his donors, not the American people. Yes, I know, corporations are people, too, but while they can try to buy votes, they cannot vote.